With Alex Rodriguez apparently set to be resized for Yankee pinstripes, the third base market is losing some major star power – and the Giants still have a black hole at the position, not to mention the middle of their lineup.

Aside from Kevin Frandsen, who fits best at second base, the Giants don’t have any internal options to play third. They aren’t expected to re-sign Pedro Feliz, who has retained a new agent and is seeking a three-year contract.

So where do they turn?

Florida third baseman Miguel Cabrera is the biggest impact hitter on the trade market, but the Marlins already have the Dodgers and Angels engaged in a bidding war. The Giants don’t have the prospects to compete with those clubs, unless they head up a multi-player offer with Tim Lincecum.

The St. Louis Cardinals confirmed that Gold Glove third baseman Scott Rolen would be available in a trade; his defense and right-handed bat would appear to fit the Giants’ priorities.

But a Giants source said they don’t anticipate being active in those talks. Rolen has three years and $36 million remaining on his contract. He also is coming off his third shoulder surgery since 2005, and Giants officials aren’t certain that he can re-establish himself as a 30-homer, 100-RBI presence.

Other free agents include Morgan Ensberg, Mike Lamb and Mike Lowell, who is expected to remain in the A.L. East. The Baltimore Orioles’ Miguel Tejada is another potential trade target.

• Giants General Manager Brian Sabean said the club isn’t planning to spend big bucks on the bullpen, where he expects Brian Wilson and Tyler Walker to compete for the closer role.

That appears to rule out a run at Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Francisco Cordero, who is the premier reliever on the market. It also might preclude the team from going after right-hander Scott Linebrink, a former favorite of Manager Bruce Bochy.

“Even the set-up market is three to four years at $3-4 million per,” Sabean said. “That’s not too palatable.”

The Giants have scouted this year’s crop of relievers from the Japanese League, but they don’t expect to find many good values. The market for Japanese pitchers is expected to soar after the success of Boston’s Hideki Okajima and the Dodgers’ Takashi Saito.

• The Giants have lost another key member of their front office to Los Angeles. Director of international operations Rick Ragazzo has left the club to become a special assistant to Dodgers G.M. Ned Colletti.

Ragazzo spent 18 years with the Giants, including the past 11 years overseeing the international scouting program. The Giants often failed to budget funds to compete for top international talent, making just two major expenditures: signing left-hander Francisco Liriano for $900,000 in 2000 and third baseman Angel Villalona for a club-record $2.1 million in ’06.

Liriano blossomed after the Giants sent him to the Minnesota Twins in the ill-fated trade for catcher A.J. Pierzynski in 2004; Villalona signed as a 16-year-old and played in the entry-level Arizona League this past season.

“It’s been encouraging what we’ve been able to do, given our resources and the fact we’re not one of those teams that has gone hog wild,” Sabean said.

“We’ve been in the right place at the right time a couple of times, and Rick leaves us with a very good setup. Now we’ve got an opportunity to shift some dollars and do some different things.”

Sabean said he didn’t have an immediate replacement in mind for Ragazzo, though the position could be split among Pacific Rim scout John Cox and Dominican Republic operations director Pablo Peguero.

• Sabean was the only general manager who didn’t attend the GM meetings earlier this month in Orlando. Instead, he stayed back at the team’s spring training complex in Scottsdale, Ariz., to go over personnel with newly hired scouting director John Barr.

In a video clip recorded by a student, a psychology instructor at Orange Coast College told her class that the election of Donald Trump was “an act of terrorism” – prompting an official complaint from the school’s Republican Club.